The Beat Goes On
by lightblue-Nymphadora
Summary: Written for the OTP 30 Day Challenge. Snapshots of Rachel and Santana's life together. Pezberry
1. Holding Hands

**The Beat Goes On**

Santana knocked on Kurt and Rachel's door, not knowing what to expect. It had been three days since the pair had kicked her out, and the only contact she'd had with either of them was a text message from Rachel last night. It had simply said: _I'm sorry. Please come over tomorrow evening? _She'd replied with an emotionless _Sure, _because she knew it would annoy the girl. Rachel loved her emoticons. She found herself staring into relieved face of Kurt Humell a few seconds later.

"Oh, thank Alexander McQueen! You're back. Come on in."

"What's—"

"She's been like a velociraptor on crack for the entire day," Kurt said in an undertone. "I'll leave my apology for later, because frankly? You're only emotionally equipped to deal with hers tonight." With that, he grabbed his bag and stalked out of the apartment.

"Okay…."

"Santana?"

She turned to see Rachel standing in the doorway of the kitchen, looking nervous as hell. "Hey there, Hobbit. What changed your mind?"

"I…I was hoping we could talk over dinner?"

"Sure," Santana said gently. Sure, she was still mad, but she really couldn't handle Rachel standing there looking slightly terrified. She'd seen that face enough in high school…. "Need me to set the table?"

"That would be great, thanks."

They got ready to eat in silence, Rachel bringing out the food and Santana putting plates out and getting drinks.

"Prime rib?" Santana asked, astonished. "That's one hell of an apology."

"Kurt cooked it," Rachel said. "However, I did make the spaghetti and the roasted vegetables."

They ate in silence. Santana had to admit, dinner was amazing. She'd look up every once in a while to catch Rachel staring at her. Finally, she took the younger woman's hand and said, "Rachel, talk to me."

"Why are you being so nice about this?" Rachel asked. "I at least expected an 'I told you so' when you got here."

"Oh, we'll get to that," Santana said, smiling. She stood, not letting go of Rachel's hand, and led them over to the couch. "But first, I want to know why the turn around."

"It was something you said, before you left," Rachel explained. "You said you loved us…that we were a family. I couldn't get it out of my head the first day you were gone, and I realized it was because it reminded me of sophomore year—when you said glee was the best part of your day. I believed you then, because for once you were trusting us to accept you. I should have trusted you now. You were doing that again, and…well, you don't do that often. I see why now."

Santana sat staring at her for a long moment, then nodded for her to continue.

"I talked to Brody yesterday. I won't go into the details, but he seemed to think that lying was the best course of action. When he came clean, I kicked him out." She looked directly at Santana then. "I'm so sorry. I was wrong. About him, about everything…. And he wasn't here first. You were, in a way. He may have moved in here before you, but I've known you longer. I should have remembered that, and known that you were trying to help."

Santana squeezed her hand. "Apology accepted…you lunatic."

Rachel let out a relieved chuckle. "Do you…want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure."

They put Avengers in and sat back on the couch. Rachel took Santana's hand again and leaned her head on her shoulder. "By the way?"

"Yeah?"

"I asked one of the instructors for the security footage of the dance studio. You rock Paula Abdul."

Santana laughed as the movie came on.


	2. Cuddling

**Girls' Night In**

Rachel flopped onto the couch, willing herself not to fall asleep. Her tap instructor was a drill sergeant on the best of days, but on exam days he was like a rhinoceros with a head cold.

"Hey lady," Santana said, sitting next to her. "Pasta's cooking, and I have lots of snacks that don't need to be refrigerated. This storm's supposed to knock out the power."

Rachel nodded. "What did you get for dessert?"

"That crazy awesome vegan apple pie you bought last week."

"Oh good, I might actually get to taste some this time," Rachel said, laughing.

"My bad," Santana said.

"What are you putting on the spaghetti? It had better not be—"

"It's not bacon, Tiny," Santana assured her. She was never going to hear the end of that one…. "I grabbed some sort of olive oil with sundried tomatoes and garlic in it. Tried it at the store; it was decent."

"Sounds amazing."

They were quiet for a moment, listening to the rain pour outside.

"Santana?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to ask you something, and if you don't want to, I politely request that you do not answer with threats of Lima Heights."

Santana snickered. "Fine. Ask away."

"Would you…cuddle with me?"

Santana looked surprised for a second, but then leaned back and nodded. "Snuggle up, Berry. I know you had a hard day."

Smiling, Rachel crawled across the short distance and got comfy next to Santana. "Thanks. It's days like these that make me wonder if it's even worth it."

"It is," Santana said, hugging her closer. "Just picture yourself ten years from now…living your Broadway fairy tale, cruising the Mediterranean in your yacht during the off-season…bugging the ever loving hell out of me and Quinn whenever you're gearing up for a show."

Rachel poked her in the ribs, but she was laughing. "20 Questions while the pasta finishes cooking?"

"Sure. Why'd you break up with Finn? Like for good?"

"When he beat the shit out of Brody, his exact words were 'Stay away from my future wife.' Besides the inherent stripping of my autonomy—"

"Half my fault. Sorry about that."

"Forgiven. But besides that…I just…I don't know where I'm headed. But I deserve to have a chance to experience things and figure myself out. I want to be Rachel—not The Future Mrs. Hudson."

Santana nodded, trying not to grin and thank every god in existence.

"Why do you go through everybody's stuff?" Rachel asked.

Santana tensed for a split second, and then relaxed. "You know how our freshman and sophomore year, I would threaten to go Lima Heights on everyone?"

"How on earth could I forget?"

"And then junior and senior year it switched to Lima Heights Adjacent?"

Rachel thought back for a moment. "Yeah…now that I think about it. I guess at the time I was too busy dodging your fists to notice," she said with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, they're two vastly different places. Adjacent is where all the rich people live. Plain ol' Lima Heights is as close as Lima gets to having a ghetto. I lived there those two years with my cousin. My aunt's…er…kind of shitty. She does drugs like whoa, and isn't all that pleasant to be around, we'll just say. Anyway, I got a call from Lima Elementary one day saying Nico was suspended and I had to come pick him up. She'd told him to pick up cigarettes for her, and he did it before school—"

"How the hell did an elementary schooler buy cigarettes?"

Santana smiled. "Not everyone's as noble as you, Rach. Anyway, somehow his teacher found out and they chucked him out for a day. It could have been a lot worse though…. I got in the habit of going through his things to make sure nothing followed him to school. And then I started going through his room to make sure she hadn't hidden anything in there that would get him killed. Drug dealers came by once or twice, and I didn't want her passing off her many shortcomings onto the eight year old."

Rachel listened open mouthed.

"So it became a sort of habit. I know doing it to roommates is completely crazy, but it's sort of a compulsion at this point…" she finished quietly.

Rachel squeezed her tightly. "You…are amazing. Terrifying at times, but amazing."

The timer went off in the kitchen, and Santana relaxed. Saved by the fucking bell—she'd had enough of spilling her guts.

"Come on. Let's eat. Then I'm whooping your ass at Scrabble."


	3. Gaming

**The Beat Goes On**

The weeks rolled by peacefully. Rachel and Kurt were both doing exceedingly well at NYADA. Santana found a job and got accepted to Columbia for the next term (much to her mother's elation). The girls found themselves hanging out more and more, and by the last weekend in March, Friday had been designated the official Girls' Night In.

Rachel set snacks out on the table and sat down next to Santana. "Okay, so what's the plan for tonight?" she asked, a bit apprehensively because Santana was currently attacking a ginormous UPS box with an X-Acto knife.

"Remember how we were talking the other day? And you said you wanted a more mainstream hobby that you could discuss with the population at large, rather than just with your theater friends?"

"Yes."

"I had Papi send this to me. Get ready, Rachel Berry, because tonight…." She let the sides of the box fall away to reveal six game consoles stacked on top of each other. "Tonight we teach you to game. We will be paying homage to the gods of Sega and Playstation. First on the list is Sega Genesis. You look through the games while I hook it up."

Rachel began peeking through the cartridges, pulling some out and glancing at them. "Santana? How do I know if these are one player or two player?"

"No worries on that. Just pick what looks fun for the first few, because I'm going to be running commentary."

Rachel, unsurprisingly to Santana, picked Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusion for the first game. Santana set it up and showed Rachel the controls, and they were off.

"It's like Mario, but with Mickey!" Rachel said, stomping another bat.

"Yep! Watch out for that guy—he spits whipped cream."

* * *

"This is so satisfying!"

It was nearly midnight. By now, they'd moved through three different games on the Genesis, skipped over the Saturn, played Crash Bandicoot on the Playstation, experience the joy of Super Magnetic Neo on the Dreamcast (and the subsequent rage when the shit console went out), and were now playing Kingdom Hearts on the PS2.

Santana had given helpful hints at first, but now she was rapidly fading. A couple of times she'd dozed off for a second and woken up to find Rachel moving on to another level.

"Santana?"

"Hmmm?"

"I asked, how do you save this? We can finish tomorrow."

After saving the game they headed to Rachel's room. After Girls' Night cuddling had also become a thing. Santana went back to her "Like a lizard" excuse, while Rachel had waxed philosophic on humanity and the need for closeness.

Kurt had called it. "You two just like to cuddle with each other. Own it."

They snuggled under the covers in silence. Finally, Santana tapped Rachel on the waist.

"You awake?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Next week…maybe we could go do something? Dinner and a movie or something…."

Rachel smiled into the older girl's shoulder. "Sure. I'd like that."


	4. On a Date

**The Beat Goes On**

Santana was experiencing a rather gnarly case of Murphy's Law that day. She'd spent the week trying to think of something to do with Rachel that didn't involve a Broadway show. That was too obvious, and she wanted it to be special. On Thursday, she'd come up with a great plan. There was a new vegan restaurant that Rachel had been dying to try called The Crispy Fairy. Apparently there was a smoothie to go bar and some pretty impressive relish trays that came with your food. There was also a jazz festival happening in the park near their apartment, so she'd figured dinner and some music would make a good date.

And it would have, had The Crispy Fairy been booked and waitlisted for the next three weeks, and had it not started raining like it was Armageddon, thus cancelling the music. The scales of fate were not tipped in her favor today.

She sighed as she climbed the stairs to the apartment. Maybe they could postpone it until next week…. When she opened the door, she stopped. There were candles and rose petals everywhere, a heavenly smell was coming from the kitchen, and Rachel was setting out plates in her gold star footie pajamas.

"Hi Santana!" she chirped.

"Wow…" was all Santana could say.

"I may or may not have heard you having a frustrated argument with the host at The Crispy Fairy, which may or may not have led me to believe that dinner might be cancelled for tonight. So I figured we could have our date here. Unless you have something else—"

"No, this is great. It looks beautiful. And your footie pajamas really set things off," she added, smirking.

"You've seen me in my underwear, and in a towel. I'll be sexy the next time we go out, but we're going comfy tonight."

"Sounds good to me. And you'd be sexy in a brown paper bag, so no worries there," Santana said, winking. "Be right back." She bolted down the hall to her room and started riffling through her drawers. She knew they were in here somewhere…ah ha! She stripped off her work clothes and pulled on her pocket watch Steampunk footie pajamas before wandering back into the living room.

Rachel saw her and grinned. "Very nice."

"Just wanted to keep with the spirit of things. Can I help at all?"

"There's a bowl of grilled veggies on the counter. If you want to toss those with the dressing and bring that in, that would be great."

Santana found the bottle of Greek dressing in the fridge and tossed the veggies with it. She smirked, thinking of her mom's reaction if she ever saw her helping with dinner.

"What's so funny?" Rachel asked, coming back in.

"Just thinking…I used to hate helping with dinner. My mom would go into conniptions if she saw me right now. Maybe we should take video and send it to her, just to see her reaction."

Rachel laughed and took the pasta into the living room.

They ate on cushions on the floor, watching but not really watching 500 Days of Summer. It was relaxing, just talking and listening to the rain.

Rachel nudged Santana when the movie went off. "Okay, your turn to pick. And please don't pick anything with lots of blood and guts. I enjoyed that meal, and I'd like to keep it."

Santana laughed and glanced out the window. The rain had let up a bit, but it was still coming down pretty good. "I have another idea."

"What's that? And will it get us arrested?"

"Don't think so. Do you have a bathing suit?"

* * *

Kurt hummed to himself as he poured a mug of tea. He had no idea where the girls were, but if they were out in that mess, they'd need some tea too. He put the ceramic tea pot back on its hot plate and added a bit more peppermint to the tea ball.

"Well, so long as I have the house to myself…time for Adventure Time!"

He turned on Cartoon Network and snuggled down in the blankets on the couch. Just as he was beginning to, once again, speculate about Marcelene and Princess Bubblegum, the door opened. "What in the actual hell?"

Santana and Rachel stood there, covered in mud from head to toe, and grinning like they'd just won the lottery.

"Best. First date. Ever," Rachel said.


	5. Kiss

**The Beat Goes On**

Rachel took Santana's hand as they walked through the market. It was an interesting place—nearly always busy. You could find anything there, from food to trumpets to lapel pins. But they were there looking for a birthday present for Quinn.

"She's turned into a bit of a hipster," Santana said with a grin. "Yale's been good to her."

"Look over there! Steampunk Emporium has a booth set up."

"Jackpot. She loves that stuff."

They had fun picking out some Steampunk comics (settling on Father Thames, The Clockwork Island, and The Hunter's Epidemic).

"We should get her one more thing," Santana mused. "Maybe something to decorate her apartment with?"

"I'd suggest the elephant tusk phone, but it implies not only cruelty to animals but poaching as well. What about that ring? Or the fold up spyglass—she works in the archives, so it would be appropriate."

"Excuse me ladies," a voice said behind them. "Would you mind showing us inside of your bags?"

Rachel and Santana turned around in unison.

"Wouldn't mind at all," Santana said. "If you tell us why."

"Routine check."

Rachel smiled. She knew the look on her girlfriend's face. From Santana to Snix the Lawyer in three seconds.

"Routine check? I don't think so," Santana said, and began to ramble off stuff like "probable cause" and "false accusations".

Rachel's knowledge of the law was pretty much limited to what she'd picked up watching Law and Order: SVU reruns, so she missed most of it.

The cops didn't though. They stood open mouthed as Santana released two years worth of law firm internship knowledge on their heads.

"Listen," she said in her "I don't mean to be a bitch, but actually I do" voice. "I get it. You're beat cops and teenagers take advantage of places like these. So you see young people and automatically think something's up. And maybe a tiny part of you likes watching them squirm. I'm sure that you're outstanding cops in every other way though, so I'm not going to start throwing around words like 'profiling,' 'lawsuit' and 'harassment', officers… Gaines and Putnam. We're just out looking for a birthday present for our bestie, but we're nothing if not cooperative. Now, again, why do you need to look through our bags?"

The officers shared a nervous glance. This wasn't some skateboarding, disrespectful punk that they could hem up while he screamed about his rights. This kid knew what she was talking about, and knew how to use it. She also knew she had a crowd around her. Officer Gaines shook his head.

"Our mistake, ma'am. Enjoy your day."

"And you, officer."

Once they'd left, Santana turned back to Rachel. "So what should we—mmph!"

Rachel didn't let go until she heard applause. "That. Was so hot."

"Just imagine me doing it in a power suit and heals," Santana said, grinning.

Rachel did imagine it. In fact, she couldn't stop imagining it.

Santana laughed. "Let's pay for Quinn's shit and go home."


	6. Wearing Each Other's Clothes

**The Beat Goes On**

Santana dropped all seven bags on the kitchen and tossed a pot onto the stove. "Kurt?" she called as quietly as he could. She rolled her eyes. Of course he'd picked today to put in overtime at his internship. She dumped a load of vegetable broth into the pot and turned the stove on.

Quietly, she tiptoed through the apartment, switching off the soccer match between the US and Italy. She peeked around the curtain that was Rachel's door and saw the girl rolled up in about 80 blankets, sleeping.

There were comics and graphic novels scattered around the bed, and a wastebasket full of tissues next to the nightstand.

"Rae," she whispered, running a hand through the girl's hair. "Wake up baby."

Brown eyes fluttered open. "San?" Rachel croaked.

"How are you feeling? Have you been able to get up at all?"

She shook her head slightly. "Everything hurts, and I can barely crawl to the bathroom."

"My poor Rae Bear…. I'm making you some soup right now. How's your fever?"

"102.5."

"I'll get you some more Tylenol."

Santana went back to the kitchen to add the egg noodles to the soup. She grabbed a bottle of cold medicine, and a bottle of whiskey, and went back to Rachel's room. She found her sitting up in bed.

"Right. One shot of Tylenol, one shot of whiskey."

"Where did you get whiskey?"

"The liquor store. Thank god for fake I.D.s"

"Santana Lopez!" Rachel croaked with as much force as she could muster.

"Shhh! Take your medicine. Is that my Columbia hoodie you're wearing?"

"I promise I'll wash it before I give it back to you. I was lonely and it smells like you."

"It's cool," she said, kissing Rachel on her forehead. "Trade you for your purple NYADA pullover."

Rachel smiled and scooted back down under her mountain of blankets. She had another brief cough attack. "Okay. Sleepy now."

"I'll wake you up when your soup is ready."


	7. Cosplay

**The Beat Goes On**

Rachel shuffled into the living room with her sandwich. It was one of the rare occasions that she actually had time to come home for lunch. "Santana!" she called. "Show's starting!"

"I'm coming." Santana shuffled in a minute later and plopped onto the couch. She had Rachel's NYADA pullover, and she was twisting the sleeves nervously.

"Is everything okay?"

"Fine, yeah. I just…I'm invoking the circle of trust."

Rachel's head snapped to the side, and she muted the TV. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just have something to tell you and a favor to ask. And I don't want it to leave this room."

"You know you can tell me anything," Rachel said, taking Santana's hand. "I haven't seen you this nervous since you had to tell Brittany that NSYNC was breaking up."

The older woman nodded, and took something out of her pocket. She unfolded it to reveal a flyer.

Rachel took it from her and glanced over it once. Then she smiled. "You don't have to be embarrassed about this, you know."

"Who said I was embarrassed?"

"Invoking the circle of trust to show me a New York Comic Con flyer?"

"…okay, so I'm a little embarrassed. But I really want to go, and, well…."

"What?"

"I want to cosplay."

"You want to who now?"

"Cosplay. It's where you… dress up and stuff. I'm not explaining it well."

"Okay. I'm sure I can find an example on YouTube…?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. But let's research together, because I don't want you to be traumatized by anything you find."

"Is that likely?"

"Very…."

* * *

Santana had expected Rachel to find the entire thing frivolous, but the younger woman threw herself into it completely. To include finding a platinum blonde wig somewhere, and bugging Clyde from the NYADA costume department to find a suitable Khaleesi costume.

"If she's Daenerys, shouldn't you be Drogo?" Kurt asked, adjusting his crown.

"Where's your Loras, Renly?" Santana shot back, fixing her sword belt around her waist.

"You make a pretty convincing Arya Stark," Rachel conceded. "So when do they let us in? This is all terribly exciting! I wonder if the cast will like our costumes."

"They'll let us in… in about five minutes," Kurt said, checking his pocket watch. "Q and A is 45 minutes long, and then we can descend on the booths again like a plague of fabulous locusts."

"Thank you for coming with me," Santana whispered to Rachel, leaning over to give her a kiss.

"OUT OF CHARACTER!"

They jumped apart as a skinny 20-something boy with god awful acne pointed an accusing finger at them.

"Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen are not together. Except in a few very good fan fiction stories I'm reading—"

"Back off, fan boy!" Rachel snapped.

He scurried away, blushing.

"Thanks, Daenerys," Santana said with a grin as the line began to move forward.


	8. Shopping

**The Beat Goes On**

Rachel hated shopping. Hated it with the all consuming passion of a thousand blazing suns. It had only taken Santana three weeks to figure out that the chore chart was a little bit biased to that fact.

"Come on, Rachel," she'd said. "Doing stuff you don't like is character building."

"But I hate grocery shopping!" Rachel had whined.

"Of course you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing bad. It just makes sense," Santana explained. "You might be methodical and organized, but you've got flair. Mountains of flair. Maybe you do color code your class notes, but you do it with sparkly pens and odd colored highlighters. Sure, you have a Powerpoint presentation every time you get an idea, but the animations would put Pixar to shame. And yeah, maybe you organize your socks by color and pattern, but I don't know anyone else who would have a section dedicated to penguins and ninjas."

"To be fair, the ninjas were your doing," Rachel said, smiling.

"Right, but what I'm saying is, you don't do normal, soul crushing methodical. You hate shopping because it's boring. You have to organize without flair."

She had agreed wholeheartedly after being sent to the store with the grocery list for the first time after that conversation. She'd come back wanting nothing more than a glass of wine and a hot bath.

So this time, Santana had promised to make it interesting for her. What that meant, she didn't know, but she'd been ushered out the door without a list and told to text her girlfriend when she got there.

_Right, San, I'm here. Let's make this quick, shall we? I hate this place._

_**Patience, my precious.**_

_I actually just read that in Gollum's voice._

_**Lol, nerd. Anyway, here's your first clue.**_

_Clue? Santana, what the hell?_

_**Most people think I'm a vegetable, if they'd have to call me anything. My name is also a word for a big crime or prank.**_

Rachel stared at her phone for a long time. Santana was sending her on a scavenger hunt. Like, for real. In real life.

_What do I get if I win?_

_**I'll make dinner with some of the things you're collecting. And I'll let you pick the movie.**_

Rachel thought about the hint for a moment. "A caper!" she said finally. She text the answer to Santana, but her girlfriend wouldn't tell her if she was right or not. So she found the aisle with all of the canned vegetables and grabbed a jar of them anyway.

_Done._

_**If you ask for me in London, you'll get something else. **_

_WTF, Santana?_

_**If you ask for me in London, you'll get the same food, but differently.**_

Rachel thought about it. She tried to think of all of the British slang she knew, but she was coming up empty at the moment. She visualized their cabinets at home. What were they out of that was something different in England….

"Chips."

_Done._

_**We say this when we take pictures, for some reason.**_

Cheese.

_**Quinn's nickname for Beth.**_

Pumpkin.

_**What I called you when you wouldn't go see Saw 14 with me.**_

_I'm going to assume you mean "chicken" and not "pussy." _

_**My favorite fruit, Mike's favorite color.**_

Oranges.

_**What you do when someone insults Barbara S.**_

Rachel rolled her eyes. The only reason she knew this was because Santana had introduced her to the White Whine blog two days ago.

_**Bill Cosby's snack.**_

And she knew this because of the hours they'd spent watching daytime TV when all three of them came down with the flu. Pudding.

_**Nickname for the psychotic Republican off-shoot party of the 2012 election. Also a name for a sex act.**_

Tea bags.

_**Ogres are like….**_

Onions.

Rachel ran back and forth across the store, probably looking like a madwoman, collecting all of the things they needed. Finally, Santana sent the last clue.

_**I'm here to recruit you!**_

Rachel laughed and went over to the refrigerators to grab a carton of milk.

* * *

"Did I win?"

Santana peered into the canvas shopping bags and smiled. "Yep! Tonight, we feast!"

Rachel just shook her head and started helping put the groceries away.


	9. Hanging Out with Friends

**The Beat Goes On**

"What are you doing?"

"Scrapbooking."

"Yeah? Which pictures?"

"I'm way behind. They're from the summer after we started dating."

"Oh lord," Santana muttered, sitting next to Rachel. She snorted. "I remember that one. Most awkward pool party for two hundred, Alex."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "We had to get it over with at some point."

* * *

"_I would literally rather be doing anything else," Santana groaned._

"_San, they're our friends," Rachel said. "It's going to be fun."_

"_It's going to be a train wreck," Santana countered, drumming on the steering wheel. "The only person who's going to believe us are Quinn and Kurt—and that's because they saw it happen."_

"_Let's assume the best of our friends, shall we?"_

_Santana grumbled something inaudible as she pulled into the community pool's parking lot._

_The gleeks were already assembled when Santana and Rachel made it over. After the normal round of greetings and hugs, most of them hopped in the pool. _

"_I'm going to tan," Santana told Rachel._

"_If I ask 'What for?' does that make me racist?" Rachel wondered aloud. _

_Mercedes laughed. "If so, I'll do it for you," she said, winking. "What for?"_

"_Okay, okay. I'm going to enjoy the feeling of the sun on my already tan skin," Santana said, rolling her eyes. She settled down on one of the pool chairs and watched the chicken fight between Mike and Rachel, and Sam and Brittany._

"_Hey, Santana."_

"_Sup, Finnocence?"_

"_How do you want your burger?"_

"_You got any more of those giant mushrooms Rachel eats?"_

"_Yeah, a few."_

"_Throw one of them on for me too."_

"_How come? Are you on some sort of weird diet?"_

"_I went vegan with Rachel."_

"_Oh, okay. Er…makes grocery shopping easier I guess."_

"_Yeah. How's the tire shop business going?"_

"_Epic. Burt's awesome. Got to go man the grill, though. Talk to you in a few."_

_When she looked back at the pool, she saw Rachel giving her a worried look. She smiled and blew a kiss at her. The drama could wait until later._

* * *

"To be fair, he took it pretty well."

"If giving everyone the silent treatment for an hour can be considered taking it well."

"He just needed some time to process."

"I know. I was surprised he didn't actually start the drama."

"He stopped it for us, though."

* * *

"_So…how did you two happen?" Mercedes asked as they sat around the picnic table. _

"_We…just kind of happened. It was just a thing."_

"_An awesome thing," Santana added. _

"_What about Finn?" Tina asked._

_Silence fell over the table. _

"_What about me?" Finn asked with a shrug. "Rachel and I didn't work out. It happens. If Santana makes her happy, everything's cool."_

"_When Finn's mature, it messes with my worldview," Kurt said._

_Finn flicked a carrot at him._

"_Vegetable abuse!" Rachel cried, getting a laugh out of everyone and effectively changing the subject._

* * *

"I miss everyone," Rachel said forlornly.

Santana looked out at the falling snow. Junior year had been rough for both of them, but she knew homesickness was starting to get to her girlfriend. "Grab your laptop, I have an idea."

An hour later, both of them had their laptops up, Legend of the Seeker (season two) was on, and all of the Gleeks were running Skype-commentary.

"Can we commentary Wrestle Mania next?"

"Is the blonde one in love with the brunette?"

"No one will ever convince me otherwise."

"She looks hella fly as a princess."

"And her rhyming skills are legit."

"Can we turn Cara into a rap star? Send Jay Z a mix tape!"

"Hey guys?" Rachel said.

"Yeah?"

"Sup?"

"Huh?"

"Can we make this a weekly thing?"

And thus, a new glee tradition was born.


	10. Wearing Kigurumis

**The Beat Goes On**

"You sure you don't need anything?" Rachel asked, shouldering her backpack.

"Positive. It's just a cold, Rae Bear. I'll be fine," Santana assured her.

Rachel still gave an impressive pout before kissing her forehead. "Thermometer's on the counter, juice is in the fridge. Call me if you need anything."

"I will."

* * *

The interpretive dance version of Old Man and the Sea was a lot harder to pull off than it sounded. Rachel was falling over tired by the time she walked out into the afternoon rain. She checked her watch—two o'clock. Santana hadn't sent her a text in a while, but she was probably sleeping. Deciding she was way too tired to deal with public transportation, she hailed a cab and enjoyed the luxuries of warmth and personal space.

By the time she got to the apartment, the rain had let up a bit. She let herself in and stopped in the doorway. Her brain didn't know how to process what she was seeing.

Santana was sitting on the couch, and hadn't noticed her yet. She was wearing what looked like animal footie pajamas, had a bowl of Ramen in front of her, and was watching…. Rachel had no idea what she was watching.

"Feeling better?" Rachel asked, closing the door.

Santana jumped, sloshing a bit of broth on the floor. "Er…yeah?"

"Do I even want to know?"

"Anime and Ramen is kind of a thing for me. My mom used to stay home a watch anime with me when I was sick."

Rachel smiled. "Catch me up?"

"The blonde motherfucker is the Beast King, the sexy asshole's name is Third, and he's helping Thor—the Beast King—and it's all dystopian. And it'll probably be easier if we just start the series over."

"Oh, you don't have to. I'm sure I can follow it."

"It's cool. It's my favorite, so I watch it over and over anyway. Plus, it's only 13 episodes, so no worries."

"Santana?"

"Yeah?"

"The hell are you wearing?"

"It's a Kigurumi. Don't judge me."

"No judgement," Rachel said, snuggling her. "I think you look adorable."


	11. Wearing Animal Ears

**The Beat Goes On**

"No."

"Sorry, what?" Santana said, looking up from her magazine.

"I said no. I don't want to go."

"But Rachel," Santana whined, scooching over to cuddle her girlfriend. "It's our senior year. This is the last Beta Bash Halloween we'll ever get to go to!"

Rachel put down her text book and wrapped her arms around Santana. "I know. But…."

"What?" Santana asked, kissing her forehead.

"It's not my scene," Rachel said with a sigh. "I'm sorry—I know I'm sort of a wet blanket, but it's never been my thing. It's just…I don't get the need to put on the tightest outfit you own and some cat ears, and say that's a costume. I hate the looks I get when I try to be creative and have fun with it. I don't like partying anyway, so spending the entire night trying to explain my cloudy with a chance of showers costume isn't my idea of a good time."

Santana nodded. "Okay."

"I won't be upset if you go, though," Rachel said, smiling. "I'll stay here and hand out candy. I think the apartment's trick or treat hours are from seven to nine."

* * *

Rachel yawned as she walked up the stairs. If it weren't for the fact that she'd planned an epic costume, she'd just go to bed right now. She turned the key in the lock and dropped her bags by the coat hooks.

"Hey Rach!"

"Oh, hey Santana!" she said, kicking off her shoes and making her way to the bedroom. "I thought you'd be over at the dorms by now for pre-gaming."

"Nah. I'm staying in tonight." She opened her mouth in an exaggerated yawn to put in her fangs.

"Really? But what about the party?"

"I wan—'uck! Ow! I 'an't 'alk wiv 'ese in!" She popped the fangs back out and glared at them. "Anyway," she said, turning to face Rachel. "I wanted to stay here with you."

"But—"

"And before you go being a silly hobbit, no, I'm not just doing this so you won't be alone. Those parties are kind of juvenile, and it's just an excuse to get drunk. But I figured we could chill here, hand out some candy, and then do our own thing later," she said, wiggling her eyebrows. "Hopefully you're not too opposed to the slutty kitten costume. To be fair, you'll only be wearing the ears for most of it…."

Rachel laughed and hugged her. "Sounds like a plan. Okay, Santana Cullen…go get the candy ready while I change."

Santana stuck her tongue out at her, but complied.

Rachel pulled a few things from the closet & various drawers. She was proud of herself for this one. She didn't even need makeup for it, which was a plus.

A few minutes later, she bounced out into the hall to find Santana eating a Snickers. "Those are for the kids!" she admonished.

"They'll get some," Santana said. "Er…what are you?"

"Think about it."

Rachel had a triangular piece of cardboard taped to her front (with a hole cut out for her face) and some sort of handle on her back. And she was wearing a chef's hat.

"Iron chef," Santana groaned.

Rachel beamed and nodded as the doorbell rang.

_**LbN: Thanks to everyone who's been reading/reviewing/favoriting/following! A new poll's up on my profile, if you want to go vote! **_


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